Rkornaker@sjfc.edu
(585) 385-8391
Just five years into his head coaching career, St. John Fisher College head coach Rob Kornaker ranks as the NCAA Division III winningest active coach.
Kornaker, who owns a 110-30 record (.786 winning percentage) led Fisher to the “Elite 8” of the NCAA Division III Championship, the furthest into the postseason the Cardinals have ever been in their 43-year history.
Fisher won the Empire 8 Conference last year for the fourth straight year to earn the program’s 12th NCAA trip in the last 15 years.
Last year’s success came right after Fisher’s record-setting run the previous winter.
In the 2004-2005 season, Kornaker’s Cardinals finished with a 28-1 overall record, including an undefeated regular season. That season, Fisher set College records for wins in a season and consecutive wins (28)—and obtained the program’s highest national ranking, climbing to No. 3 in the d3hoops.com national poll. Fisher entered the 2005 postseason as the only undefeated team in all of college basketball at 27-0.
“We’ve been very fortunate the last few years,” says Kornaker, who was named as DIII News Coach of the Year in 2005. “Our success has been a culmination of the hard work of our players and our entire coaching staff.”
An All-Greater Rochester and All-Monroe County basketball player in high school, Kornaker graduated from Gates Chili in 1986. He continued his career at Alfred University where he played four seasons of basketball and finished his career with 990 points.
Upon graduation, Kornaker accepted a position as a graduate assistant before becoming an assistant at Alfred State College. After one year at the junior college level, Kornaker returned to Division III basketball, guiding SUNY Geneseo to an appearance in the NCAA sweet 16 during his four-year tenure as assistant coach.
In 1998 Kornaker finally landed at St. John Fisher College, but not as a part of the basketball program. He initially took a full-time position as the College’s director of residential life and got his foot in the door at the athletic department by serving as the head coach of the golf team. In 2000, Kornaker return to true sport, and became Fisher’s full-time assistant coach to then-head coach and current athletic director Bob Ward. In 2001, Ward stepped down as head coach and handed the reins over to Kornaker, thus becoming just the third coach in Fisher’s storied basketball history.
“I’m very grateful to St. Joh
Rob and his wife, Leslie, live in Webster with their two children, Alexis and Griffin.
